


Echo

by scalpelink



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-14
Updated: 2017-01-14
Packaged: 2018-09-17 13:01:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9324974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scalpelink/pseuds/scalpelink
Summary: It's Kara's birthday. Another year gone by.





	

At the limit of Earth’s atmosphere, Kara emptied her lungs. Her breath crystallised into a frozen pillar that drifted out into space. She followed it, concentrating on the tightness already building in her chest. It had taken years of effort but Kara had finally mastered space-walking. Kal would always be better but Kara took comfort in knowing there was nowhere her cousin could go, that she could not follow.

Kara looked out into the cosmos. As always, her heart lurched. A vast emptiness yawned wide in a galaxy far-flung, and Kara feared she would hear it screaming for eternity. She always lingered and listened. She could hear nothing in space, save her own heart and the memories it clutched.

The DEO space station maintained a low, geosynchronous orbit above North America. Kara turned toward the station, hair floating about her head as she did. Brilliant sunlight glanced across the metal bulkheads. Lights blinked atop aerials. A small hatch opened at the end of a spider-like limb, welcoming Kara home. It was little more than a shadow in the distance but as Kara neared, its massiveness towered over her like a mountain.

Kara drifted inside the airlock, pulling the hatch closed behind her. Her throat was burning. She could last for just over an hour in zero-gravity but after a prolonged and gruelling fight with anti-alien terrorists, all but a small measure of her strength was spent. When the airlock flooded with oxygen, Kara heaved a breath as if she had surfaced from under an ocean.

A petty officer waited outside of the airlock. Kara shook the ice crystals from her hair as she stepped out. She placed her hand to the security pad the petty officer held, standing dutifully until the pad shone green.

“Officer Supergirl,” the security pad intoned. “Access granted.”

Kara smiled. “That’s never going to sit right, you know? ‘Officer’ Supergirl.”

The petty officer simply inclined his head with a polite ‘ma’am’, before returning to his station duties. Kara watched him go. No matter how she tried, she could not endear herself. The tightness of her chest in space was nothing to now.

Kara walked into the station – her home for almost a year - and unzipped the front panel of her uniform. It did very little to help her breathe easier. Her cape went next, but it did not take the weight from her shoulders. As she passed a viewport, she stopped to look at her reflection. Her body was bent. Her uniform, the black utilitarian wear that her aunt Astra had always favoured, was baggy around her hips. The small red insignia of her house was tarnished and worn. Kara rubbed at it, willing away the tears she could feel brewing.

“You did good, kid.” Kara jumped. She did her best to smile. J’onn put his hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently. “Real good.”

“I did what I could,” Kara said, stifling a sigh. “Pretty hard to be Earth’s protector when you’ve been exiled from the planet.”

J’onn frowned and looked away. “They’ll come around,” he said, but neither of them believed it any more. Humanity had made its mind up about aliens and Kara could not blame them. After the London tragedy, there was no defence any alien could muster that would make it okay. Aliens that were capable, had already left Earth. Those that were not, hid in terror of humans.

With Kara on one station and Kal another, both orbiting at pole opposites, they protected what was left. No one wanted their help. No one cheered for them. No one was ever grateful for the sacrifices they made. Yet, Kara and Kal vowed they would never stop trying. Earth was their home.

Kara folded her cape in her arms and after a lingering look at herself and J’onn – he looking just as worn as she – they continued into the station.

“There are a few briefings to go through,” J’onn said. “Agent Sawyer wants a few minutes to discuss a potential strike-back plan against Váli. And…”

Kara watched the soldiers moving around the station. Most did not look her way. Of those that did, their faces were impassive. They tolerated Kara’s presence. They did not welcome her. She even had a whole branch of the station to herself instead of bunking with them.

“You listening to me, kid?”

Kara blinked. “Yes. You were talking about the UN president wanting to designate alien reservations.” Kara shrugged. “I think it will go exactly the same as last time we tried. We can talk to Kal, though. See if he can help out. Maybe make something stick this time.”

J’onn scrubbed a hand through his thinning hair. He used to hug her, and Kara could feel him itching to again, but he never reached out. “Go get some rest,” he said, gently. “The briefings can wait for another day. Today is-”

“I know what today is,” Kara said, looking up at J’onn and hoping, rather than believing, she was smiling. “I’ll see you in a few hours.”

Kara sloped off toward her quarters. The doors that framed her long hallway all led to empty rooms. No one would come closer than needed to the Girl of Steel. Her booted feet, and the artificial gravity generators, were the only sounds. Kara’s room was at the very end of the hall; the one with the most viewports, to take in the sun. At the entry, Kara pressed her hand to the security lock and almost fell through the door.

Once inside, Kara dropped her cape. She did not bother turning the lights on. She just leaned back against the bulkhead and pushed her hands through her hair, breathing slowly. Fingers of sunlight reached out to her over Earth’s curve. She faced into them, soaking up what little energy they offered, like a flower in winter. For long, long minutes, it was all she could do.

“We had this whole thing prepared,” Winn said, coalescing from the shadows. His voice was soft but his grin was as wide as always. Kara did her best to grin back. “But then you walked in here looking all hang-dog.” He huffed. “How are you supposed to surprise a girl on her birthday if she looks all hang-dog?”

James appeared at Winn’s side and thumped his shoulder. Winn rubbed and scowled, quickly amending himself. “Still gorgeous,” he said. “Like whoa. But not so much with the happy.”

The lights eased on, needing a few seconds to reach full power. Maggie and Alex stood together by Kara’s sunbed. They wore similar looks of concern. Lena was settled into the corner of Kara’s sofa-bed and when she looked her way, Kara smiled for the first time.

“Oo! I know what will cheer you up!” Winn jumped. “There’s food. Like, a feast!” He strutted over to the small dining area, which was little more than a fold-up metal sheet, and swept a hand over the ‘feast’. There were a handful of high-density carbohydrate and protein bars; one was open and kneaded into a mound that looked as though it was trying to be a cake. A crude ‘K’ was etched into its top. A carton of real orange juice was sitting beside it.

“J’onn stole the juice,” Winn said, beaming.

James put his arm on Winn’s shoulder, “Happy Birthday, Kara.”

The sentiment was chorused by all but Kara only looked at Lena. She was biting her lip. Her long hair, past her shoulders now, obscured Lena’s face in shadow, but Kara felt her.

“Still the prettier one,” Alex said, grinning at her sister, pulling Kara’s attention away from Lena’s knowing smile. Maggie, tucked neatly into her wife’s side, just shook her head.

Kara bared her teeth. “You’re just jealous.”

“You going to eat your cake or not, Little Danvers?”

Kara looked back at the mangled protein bar. Her face twisted into a grimace. She had a formidable constitution but when she thought about eating her stomach grumbled unhappily.

“I’ll get to it later,” she said. Everyone laughed at her.

After talking with Winn and James for a few minutes, Kara went over to her sister. Her grin came out in full force. They talked about work only briefly. Kara reminded Alex that her son was still as much of a pain as his mother. Maggie rolled her eyes and shared a profound look of sympathy with Kara. It was everything Kara wanted for her birthday.

As much as Kara was enjoying her sister’s unbridled mischief, Kara could not talk with them long, either. Her attention persistently strayed to Lena. She could not stop herself taking a seat next to her. The talk of her friends and family faded into nothing.

“I have to say,” Lena drawled, “that I preferred the red and blue number.”

Kara blushed, still, after years of intimacy. “Maybe, if you ask nicely, I can find it out again?”

“And I thought it was supposed to be _your_ birthday…”

Biting her lip, fighting down the words itching in her throat, Kara leaned back against the sofa. She turned to look at Lena; at the way starlight washed her features but made wonder out of her eyes. Kara thumbed the platinum band on her finger and breathed easy for the first time all day.

There were more lines around Lena’s eyes than Kara remembered. A spray of grey hair swept back from her temple. She looked older but Kara could only see the woman whose office she had righteously stormed, back when no one knew who Kara Danvers was.

“So beautiful…”

Lena ducked her head. A blush coloured her cheeks. “Stop,” she said, pleading. “You already won me, Kara.”

“But I have to keep you,” Kara said. The sun caught the matching wedding band on Lena’s hand. “I have to earn you. Every day.”

Lena, hardening, turned to face Kara. Her hand was resting just shy of touch. Kara’s whole body thrummed with need for it. She could smell Lena’s perfume. Her throat was dry and her heart ached. She looked down at Lena’s mouth and licked her lips. Her heart kicked against her ribs as she imagined that first touch.

“You have me, Kara.” Lena willed her to believe. A sharp pain lanced through Kara’s chest. “Always.”

“Stop, please.” Kara screwed her eyes closed. She was near-gasping around the pain. “Please.”

“I’ll never-”

“Stop!”

Kara rocked forward and braced her head between her knees, breathing hard. The computer responsible for the elaborate holographic network shut down. Lena vanished. The lights powered down. Kara sat in the dark and let the tears come. They dribbled hot and endless down her cheeks.

In her long-distant memories, Lena was whispering nonsense to her; soothing and loving. Kara’s skin prickled at Lena’s nails scraping down her nape. The ache in her chest swelled until she could not breathe.

Kara looked out into space, searching for Rao in the galaxies that spiralled beyond the Milky Way. Between Lena and Rao, Kara had never faced a moment alone. Now when Kara searched, she found nothing; nothing in the vastness of space and nothing by her side.

It had been over a hundred years since Kara had said goodbye to her family. Their bodies had aged and turned to dust right before eyes. Lena and Alex had both tried to make her move on. Lois had begged Kal to do the same.

Even as Kara confronted many more centuries of loneliness, she knew there was no power in the universe that could make her forget. She thumbed her wedding ring again.

Their memories would be enough.

They had to be.


End file.
